Low-carbon Transition Research Articles

Bridging the implementation gap for climate mitigation in ASEAN: a comprehensive capacity-building framework

PurposeThe paper systematically examines the capacity building needs of energy and climate stakeholders in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It looks at conditions and opportunities for improvements in institutional, organisational, technological, innovation and financing capacities. This paper provides a guide to concrete capacity building programs and implementations to accelerate the implementation of National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and low-carbon energy transition in the ASEAN region.Design/methodology/approachThis paper proposes a comprehensive capacity-building framework, drawing on transition management theory and the interactive systems framework for capacity building. The assessment is based on interviews with representatives of the ministry responsible for energy policy and the ministry responsible for climate policy in each ASEAN country, as well as a survey among a broader set of Southeast Asian energy and climate experts from academia, think tanks and international development partners.FindingsThe paper identifies the priority areas for capacity building for each ASEAN country and the region as a whole. Each country has a unique set of needs and priorities. At the regional level, the widest capacity gaps were observed in institutional capacity, technical capacity, human resources capacity, financing capacity and the capacity to develop policy and legislation. Specific gaps for capacity building are discussed in delivering strategic areas of energy transition, such as electrification of transportation, development of the green supply chain, deploying renewable energy, energy efficiency, strengthening finance and investment and reducing dependencies on fossil fuels.Originality/valueThis paper helps fill the gap for detailed capacity needs analysis and facilitates long-term plans/strategies and their implementation. The insights help to increase ASEAN energy and climate stakeholders’ understanding of the interaction between energy and climate, therefore enhanced capability in developing more effective action maps and intervention points in achieving NDCs and sustainable development goals.

Lived values and modal choices in Sweden: an approximation to potential losses from the low-carbon transition in the transport sector

AbstractTo meet the goals set in the Paris Agreement, the transport sector requires transformative changes, not only in terms of prevailing technologies but also with regards to reducing the need for fossil-based transport and increasing the share of public and active transport modes. Policies to enable this transformation are likely to have differentiated impacts on quality of life across society and have the potential to reproduce or deepen existing inequalities. When identifying potential losers from the low-carbon transition, it is important to consider a diverse set of loss categories, including social support networks and attachments a person has to particular people, material things, places and traditions. A key assumption here is that individuals’ perceptions of loss derive from their lived values, i.e., what they consider important in their life. Through a mixed-method approach consisting of a literature review and a survey, this study explores modal choices for realizing activities central to quality of life in Sweden, with a particular focus on societal groups at disadvantage in the transport transition. This article provides new insights on potential losses associated with the low-carbon transition in the transport sector and their distribution across society and reflects on the implications for transitional assistance policy.

Toward low-carbon transition: Does carbon regulation matter for spatial development inequality?

Toward low-carbon transition: Does carbon regulation matter for spatial development inequality?

Who is (not) in the room? An epistemic justice perspective on low-carbon transport transitions

ABSTRACT Car-centric planning exacerbates the climate crisis, compromises public health, and erodes public space. Street-space reallocation programmes, which redistribute road space from cars to active travel, leisure and urban green, are an important strategy to respond to these challenges. In line with a wider shift towards collaborative planning, many of these programmes include public participation. However, participatory planning approaches face criticism for being exclusionary, favouring a loud or privileged minority. Following an epistemic justice perspective, this paper invites to consider the question: ‘who is (not) in the room?’ Based on in-depth qualitative analysis of the participatory processes linked to a pedestrianisation scheme in Berlin, we focus on the link between non-participation in invited participatory spaces and the emergence of claimed spaces of participation. We found all participants to have participated in one of them. The decision of how to participate is a complex interplay between the relevance of the scheme and the feeling of being heard. We show that it seems irrelevant whether this interplay applies to oneself or to one’s social network. Based on our findings, we argue that epistemically just participatory planning approaches to transitions need to go beyond invited spaces to include claimed spaces both spatially and temporally.

Augmented pre-training-based carbon emission accounting method using electricity data under small-sample condition

IntroductionAccurate and rapid carbon accounting method for the power industry is crucial to support China’s low-carbon transformation. Currently, carbon emission accounting methods are based on slowly updated fuel statistics or expensive monitoring equipment, resulting in high costs and delays in carbon emission estimation. Power data offers high real-time availability, accuracy, and resolution, and exhibits a strong correlation with carbon emissions. These characteristics provide a pathway for achieving rapid and precise annual carbon emission accountings. However, carbon emission data inherently exhibits small sample characteristics, making these methods less effective in small sample conditions and leading to lower accounting accuracy.MethodsTherefore, this paper proposes an augmented pre-training-based “electricity-to-carbon” method under small sample conditions.ResultsThis approach utilizes the correlation between electricity and carbon data as well as the autocorrelation characteristics of carbon emission data to construct a machine learning-based electricity-carbon fitting model for rapid and accurate carbon emission estimation. To address the challenges of small sample learning, this paper introduces an interpolation pre-training method to optimize the model’s hyperparameters and conserve samples for model training, thereby improving the model’s generalization and robustness.DiscussionCase studies on a real dataset verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method. The findings of this study can promote the development of carbon measurement technology and facilitate the low-carbon transition of developing countries.

Climate-Driven Sustainable Energy Investments: Key Decision Factors for a Low-Carbon Transition Using a Multi-Criteria Approach

Currently, the need for a clean transition has made the upscaling of sustainable energy investment projects imperative. This paper addresses the increasing importance of sustainable energy investment projects in the context of climate change and the urgent need for a global energy transition. Given the complexity of decision-making in this field, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is employed to assess the main criteria considered by project developers and financial institutions. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, eight criteria are identified and evaluated. Results highlight differing priorities between project developers and investors, emphasizing the need for adaptable approaches to accelerate sustainable energy investments. The study underscores the importance of understanding diverse stakeholder preferences and priorities in formulating effective strategies and managing associated risks to effectively promote sustainable energy projects. Future research should focus on real-life case studies and policy assessments to further enhance the understanding of sustainable energy investment dynamics.

Digital transformation, audit risk, and the low-carbon transition of China's energy enterprises

While digital transformation is recognized for driving efficiency and sustainability in China's energy sector, its impact on low-carbon transitions through the lens of audit risk remains underexplored. This study examines how digital transformation, encompassing technologies like AI, IoT, Big Data, and blockchain, affects the low-carbon transition of Chinese energy enterprises, with a specific focus on the mediating role of audit risk. Using data from 2008 to 2022, we find that digital transformation significantly enhances low-carbon transitions. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that audit risk, particularly abnormal expenses, mediates this relationship, with lower audit risk amplifying the positive effects of digital transformation. This underscores the importance of robust audit and risk management practices in ensuring the effectiveness of digital transformation for achieving sustainability goals. Importantly, our findings highlight key heterogeneities in this relationship: the impact of digital transformation varies across regions in China and is influenced by the type of audit firm. This suggests that the Eastern region and firms audited by Non-Big Four firms experience the most significant benefits from digitalization in their pursuit of low-carbon transitions. These insights offer valuable guidance for energy companies and policymakers navigating the complexities of digital innovation and sustainable development in China's energy sector.

Do bank incentives matter? Evidence from the impact of green finance on corporate carbon neutrality performance

Bank incentives are pivotal to enterprises’ low-carbon transitions. Utilizing the 2021 China green finance evaluation as an exogenous shock to bank incentives, we show that increasing such incentives can significantly enhance the carbon neutrality performance of heavily polluting enterprises. Additionally, factors based on financing perspective and stakeholders’ attention moderate that relationship. The impact of bank incentives solely extends to the environmental dimension of ESG. Our results provide insights and policy implications for stakeholders and policymakers in promoting the impact of green finance.

Nuclear Energy Consumption, low-carbon Transition and factor productivity in South Korea

Nuclear Energy Consumption, low-carbon Transition and factor productivity in South Korea

Assessment of Flexible Coal Power and Battery Energy Storage System in Supporting Renewable Energy

The use of renewable energy sources (RES) is expected to increase, potentially leading to volatility in the power system. Therefore, flexible power is essential to address this challenge. In China, two viable options for providing flexible power are battery energy storage systems (BESS) and flexibility modification of coal power units. This study introduces a framework to evaluate the costs of power system flexibility under varying RES shares on an hourly basis, comparing flexible coal power and BESS across several scenarios. In the short term, flexible coal power proves to be more advantageous than BESS, but BESS shows greater promise in the long run. The study suggests that while coal power will continue to play a critical role in the near future, it should gradually be phased out by reducing its utilization hours. Meanwhile, BESS should receive greater focus for long-term energy strategy. This study underscores the importance of maintaining power system stability throughout the low-carbon transition and highlights the need to balance short-term and long-term strategies for flexible power.

The impact of the digital economy and institutional quality in promoting low-carbon energy transition

The impact of the digital economy and institutional quality in promoting low-carbon energy transition

Mechanisms of Thermal Decomposition in Spent NCM Lithium-Ion Battery Cathode Materials with Carbon Defects and Oxygen Vacancies.

Resource recovery from retired electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is a key to sustainable supply of technology-critical metals. However, the mainstream pyrometallurgical recycling approach requires high temperature and high energy consumption. Our study proposes a novel mechanochemical processing combined with hydrogen (H2) reduction strategy to accelerate the breakdown of ternary nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) cathode materials at a significantly lower temperature (450 °C). Particle refinement, material amorphization, and internal energy storage are considered critical success factors for the accelerated decomposition of NCM cathode materials. In our proposed approach, NCM cathode materials can develop active sites with carbon defects (Cv) and oxygen vacancies (Ov), which improve the reduction and breakdown of H2. The adsorbed H2 on the surface of NCM decomposes into H* and combines with oxygen to form OH species, which can be facilitated by Ov via the enhanced charge transfer. The introduced Cv can enhance H2 cracking and generate *C-H species to promote the thermal decomposition of NCM. The presence of defects proves to foster the preferential reduction of Mn(IV) by H2, leading to a lower activation energy for the NCM decomposition (from 139 to 110 kJ/mol) with less H2 consumption. Life cycle assessment suggests a reduction of 4.42 kg CO2 eq for the recycling of every 1.0 kg of retired batteries. This study can promote material circularity and minimize the environmental burden of mining technology-critical metals for a low-carbon transition.

Optimization of Regional Power Low-Carbon Transition Pathways in China under Differentiated Tradable Green Certificates Trading Models

Optimization of Regional Power Low-Carbon Transition Pathways in China under Differentiated Tradable Green Certificates Trading Models

Strategic carbon emission assessment in sludge treatment: A dynamic tool for low-carbon transformation

The carbon–neutral target presents a significant challenge for the sewage sludge treatment and disposal (SSTD) industry, necessitating strategic planning for a low-carbon transition. However, flexible and comprehensive carbon emission analysis tools to support this goal remain lacking. This study presents a carbon emission analysis tool to evaluate the carbon emission characteristics and future mitigation potentials of SSTD. The tool integrates life cycle inventory (LCI) modeling-based analysis, sensitivity analysis, regression analysis, and scenario analysis. Carbon emissions are dynamically calculated based on sludge properties, technological level, and industry external parameters, providing a foundation for adaptable evaluation tailored to local conditions. The framework considers the potential effects of multi-parameter and multi-aspect changes in scene design, both within and outside the industry, to achieve dynamic and comprehensive simulations. A case study conducted in Wuhan, China, demonstrated the usability and application processes of the framework. The results indicated that carbon emissions from SSTD are projected to more than double from 2021 to 2060 without interventions. Among the mitigation measures, energy and chemical savings would yield the largest reduction potential, followed by the technical layout adjustment and the promotion of energy efficiency. Operational optimization in the sludge industry and outside the industry would contribute the least. With all mitigation measures applied, emissions could decrease to –82.91 kt CO2-eq in 2060, equivalent to 13.03% compensation for emissions from the sewage treatment line. Among all the processes, incineration routes are recommended due to their current and future low carbon emissions. The cooperative resource route of anaerobic digestion and land use also shows promise as it progressively demonstrates superior performance with increasing organic matter and nutrient content of sludge. Critical factors, sub-processes, and emission types for different routes were identified and can be optimized accordingly. The developed method demonstrates sufficient flexibility to be applied to other cities and larger-scale regions, thereby offering technical and strategic support for SSTD towards carbon–neutral operation.

Does advanced human capital structure improve carbon emission performance in China? Empirical research from a spatial spillover perspective

Facilitating coordination between economic growth and carbon mitigation is vital for the sustainability of human society. Identifying the driving factors of Carbon emission performance (CEP) is crucial for its improvement. Nevertheless, empirical research on the relationship between advanced human capital structure (AHCS) and CEP remains scarce. This study analyzes the impact of AHCS on CEP utilizing a dataset covering 30 Chinese provinces from 2006 to 2021. First, we construct a global epsilon-based measure (EBM) model with undesired output to accurately measure the multi-period CEP for Chinese provinces. Next, we evaluate the level of AHCS from the perspective of dynamic evolution. Subsequently, a spatial Durbin model (SDM) is employed to examine the spatial spillover effects of AHCS on CEP. The results illustrate that CEP exhibits significant positive spatial spillover effects across provinces. Additionally, AHCS has a direct and significant positive impact on local CEP and can indirectly enhance CEP in neighboring regions through spillover effects, although the impact varies across different regions. The impact mechanism analysis indicates that AHCS enhances CEP via technological advancement, industrial structure upgrading (ISU), and energy efficiency improvement, despite the asymmetric effects observed between local and neighboring provinces. Therefore, shaping a favorable educational environment to optimize the human capital structure is critical for the improvement of CEP. In addition, promoting resource sharing and technology exchange through regional cooperation is essential for China’s low-carbon transition development.

Addressing companies’ low-carbon transition challenges requires diversified investments in environmental initiatives

The energy, utilities, industrial, and material sectors are crucial suppliers of essential goods and services, but their business operations are among the largest sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, companies in these sectors play a pivotal role in the low-carbon transition and face substantial stakeholder pressure to manage their transition risks and reduce their environmental impact. Here, we argue that effective responses to transition challenges require diversifying investments in adaptation and mitigation initiatives across a broad range of activities and goals. Analysing financial and nonfinancial data from a global sample of publicly traded companies, we find that those who extensively diversify their investments are better able to reduce their emissions over time. Diversification also reduces carbon pricing risk, thereby lowering exposure to transition risks, under several climate policy scenarios. Our findings provide empirical evidence that business leaders in critical sectors for the low-carbon transition should incorporate well-diversified investments in adaptation and mitigation initiatives into their sustainability strategies to manage interconnected transition challenges.

The impact of the carbon reduction policy effectiveness on energy companies' ESG performance

As one of the largest sources of carbon emissions, energy companies are motivated to improve their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance to attract investment and meet sustainability goals under the constraints of carbon reduction policies. However, it is currently unclear whether and how carbon reduction policies can help energy companies improve their ESG performance. Therefore, this paper comprehensively examines the impact of carbon reduction policies on the ESG performance of energy companies. First, we use the content analysis method to construct a novel index as a proxy of policy influence based on policy text, i.e., the carbon reduction policy effectiveness (CRPE) index. Then, we empirically examine the impact of CRPE on the ESG performance of energy companies using the panel data of Chinese A-share listed energy companies from 2010 to 2022. The empirical study shows that the CRPE can significantly improve the ESG performance of energy companies and remains robust to robustness tests. Mechanism tests show that it is due to the increase in executives with environmental backgrounds and executive compensation. For the three indicators (E, S, and G) of ESG performance, CRPE promotes environmental and social performance but reduces governance performance. Notably, the effect of CRPE on the ESG performance of clean energy companies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is more significant. These findings enrich environmental economic theories and provide a reference for energy companies to promote ESG practices and the low-carbon transition, helping to accelerate the process of carbon neutrality.

A POLYCENTRIC APPROACH TO THE GREEN ENERGY TRANSITION IN BULGARIA

Ostrom’s polycentric model for the governance of social systems has been gaining popularity as an alternative approach to the low-carbon energy transition in recent years. This article considers its potential application to three issues in Bulgaria’s green energy transition: finding substitutes for coal-based electricity production in the Maritsa-East lignite complex, providing new employment opportunities for workers affected by the transition, and understanding the broader social impacts of moving away from the traditional hierarchic model in the energy sector. It is important to note that while polycentric organizing is intended to support low-carbon solutions, it could also serve the interests of coal energy actors, who may prioritize short-term gains over the long-term public interest. Overcoming inertia is a major challenge for adopting the polycentric principle as part of Bulgaria’s industrial policy, particularly in implementing decentralized low-carbon energy solutions.

U.S. Labor and renewable energy: green growth versus the Green New Deal

ABSTRACT In this article, I examine findings from an NSF-funded project on U.S. labor unions’ stance on renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar power, which is neither simple nor well understood. The discourse on energy issues of 11 national-level U.S. unions posted to union websites from 2012 to 2020 was examined and coded using NVivo. While almost all unions in this study were enthusiastic supporters of renewable energy, the reasons for their support were very different, with different implications for the goal of low-carbon energy transition. Unions disagree on issues of ‘just transition,’ and exhibit lines of conflict on four issues: who should lead the energy transition; whether jobs in renewable energy are or could be as good as fossil fuel jobs; whether fossil fuels should be phased out; and whether a just transition necessarily includes transformation of unjust social relations. Union strategies regarding renewable and fossil fuel energy were characterized as ‘Green Growth,’ versus Green New Deal. Examining these contrasting strategies through the lens of theoretical perspectives including ecological modernization, feminist theory, Treadmill of Production theory, and the theoretical perspectives of Gramsci and Polanyi allows labor’s role in energy transition to be better understood while refining sociological theory.

Importance of Eco-Entrepreneurship as a Tool for Climate Action and LowCarbon Transition in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Nigeria

Climate change poses socio-economic, legal and environmental vulnerabilities such as land degradation, biodiversity loss, loss of property and livelihood, increase poverty rate and a threat to public health. These impacts are said to only intensify with projected increase in population and global economic growth. Hence, global consensus advocate for decarbonisation and low carbon transition in all economic sectors as an effective mitigation strategy for climate change. In an attempt to lower carbon emissions, leading cooperation’s and organizations have focused on mitigation projects that regulate activities of cooperate actors and big CO2 emitters such as the oil and gas conglomerates. However, the United Nation Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) promotes a transformative bottom-up approach to address climate change via localism and citizen participation to educate and train eco-entrepreneurs or ecopreneurs who participate and engage in strategic entrepreneurship projects designed to actively decarbonize economies. These ecopreneurs generate home-grown sustainabilityfocused small and medium scale eco-enterprises (SMEEs), also called energy citizens, ecological citizens, energy communities and co-operatives that can develop sustainable business model innovations, nature-based services and solutions, sustainable business management strategies, technologies and green jobs needed to drive the low carbon transition in key CO2 -emitting economic sectors such as the energy, agriculture, transportation, waste management, food, tourism, building and architecture and fashion industries. This article examines the characteristics, nature and benefits of eco-entrepreneurship as a tool for advancing climate action and low carbon energy transition. Using Nigeria as a case study, a profile of the barriers slowing the growth of eco-entrepreneurship is identified within the PESTEL framework. Furthermore, drawing examples from the U.K. governance landscape and portfolio, recommendations on a transformative yet contextual strategy captured in the five transformative features (diversity, connectivity, polycentricity, redundancy and directionality) are made to interrogate and overcome entrepreneurial ecosystem barriers towards successfully supporting the rapid growth of eco-entrepreneurship.